Iris Theatre Announces Exciting Open-Air Summer Season

Award-winning Iris Theatre's summer season will present a unique theatrical promenade experience in the middle of Covent Garden. Shakespeare's The Tempest opens this year's enchanting outdoor season followed by Daniel Winder's adaptation of The Three Musketeers - suitable for all the family.

Inspired by the courtly royal masques of the 17th century and the designs of Inigo Jones (the architect behind St Paul's Church), The Tempest will present an evening of pomp, magic and illusion. Directed by Iris Theatre's Artistic Director Daniel Winder, this bold production stars Propellor and West End regular Tony Bell. As St Paul's Church transforms into a mysterious island, audiences are led on an exciting indoor and outdoor promenade adventure to discover whether anger wins or love will redeem all. Dress to impress as you are about to join a party at the end of the world!

Also this season, Paul-Ryan Carberry directs the epic family production, The Three Musketeers. This thrilling adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' classic novel follows young d'Artagnan (played by Jenny Horsthuis who returns to Iris after her acclaimed performance in Macbeth last year) on her secret mission to be the first female Musketeer. Young audiences will be hypnotised as heroic deeds, epic duels (with spectacular sword fights choreographed by Roger Bartlett, Treasure Island 2016) and a lavish masquerade ball all come to life in this huge outdoor adventure. Daniel Winder's adaptation of this classic novel presents the story as you've never seen it before.

Having gained full charity status in 2009, Iris are keen to support the development of the next generation of professional theatre practitioners and to make theatre affordable and accessible for young patrons. In this vein, Iris will be launching their exciting new youth access scheme - Young Iris. This new scheme will enable anyone aged 16-25 to receive tickets for all of Iris' shows at the same rate as a child ticket. Iris will also be re-launching their successful Iris Friends scheme which entitles patrons to a range of benefits for £25 per year.

Daniel Winder comments, We're delighted to be announcing our summer season for 2018 after such a successful 2017! The Tempest and The Three Musketeers are both projects that have been planning for a long time, so finally being able to talk about them is a relief. We're especially excited that this year we also get to offer an unlimited number of discounted tickets to young people as part of the new Young Iris scheme, further meeting our commitment to invest in the theatremakers of tomorrow.

Tickets are available from www.iristheatre.com. Patrons who wish to purchase tickets as part of the Young Iris scheme should sign up through the website in advance of booking tickets.

Iris Theatre is an award-winning theatre company based at the Actors' Church (St Paul's) in Covent Garden, now in its 11th year. For the past 8 years, Iris' main output has been a summer season featuring a Shakespeare and a family show in outdoor promenade at St Paul's, including the Offie award-winning Treasure Island and last year's hits Macbeth and Hansel & Gretel. Growing year on year, Iris gained full charity status in October 2009, with a mission to support the development of the next generation of professional theatre practitioners and to produce a fresh and vibrant repertoire of varied work resulting in affordable and accessible theatre.